66 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
their forces with the English, for the purpose of expelling the French garrison.from Leith.
The Council of Edinburgh manifested their sympathy by contributing the sum of sixteen
hundred pounds Scots to maintain four hundred men engaged in their service for one
month, for the reduction of that town.’
The English force landed, and took up their station around Restalrig Church, casting
up trenches and securing themselves from the danger of surprise.’ The forces of the Congregation
had now acquired both experience and discipline, and with the aid of such
auxiliaries, the tables were speedily turned.
The French troops began the attack by a sudden sally on the camp at Restalrig, by
which the English auxiliaries were taken at a disadvantage ; but they speedily rallied, and
chased them to the walls of Leith, killing above three hundred, though with a still greFter
loss to themselves. In order more closely to press the siege, they removed their camp, a
few days after, to Pilrig, a rising ground still known by that name, lying directly between
Edinburgh and Leith.3
Early in May, a general
assault was made, but the scaling ladders were discovered to be too short when applied
to the walls, and the besiegers were driven back with great slaughter.
The ordnance of the French garrison were mounted along the walls, and on every
available point within the town of Leith. A battery that was erected on the tower of the
preceptory of St Anthony proved particularly annoying and destructive to the besiegers ;
and as they were unable, from their distance, to produce any effect on it, they advanced
their cannon to the Links of Leith, where they threw up mounds of earth, and erected a
battery of eight guns. With these they kept up 80 constant and destnctive a firing, that,
in a few days, they not only dismounted the ordnance placed by the French in t$e steeple,
but greatly injured it and the adjoining buildings.‘
On the 14th of April, being Easter Sunday, a constant firing was kept up by the
assailants, particularly at St Mary’s Church, where the people were assembled for divine
service, so that a bullet was shot through the great east window, passing right over the
altar, during the celebration of high mass, and just before the elevation of the host.
Two of the mounds thrown up by the besiegers on this occasion still remain on Leith
Links, and almost directly opposite the east end of the church. One of them is on the
extreme east side of the Links ; the other, which lies considerably nearer the High School,
is locally designated the Giant’s Bra. As there existed, till very recently, no houses
between the church and these open downs on which the batteries were erected, it must
have lain completely exposed to the fire of the besiegers. Some obscurity exists in the
narratives of the different historians of this period, as to which church is spoken of.
Bishop Leslie mentions their having “shot many great schottis of cannonis and gret
ordinances at the parrishe kirk of Leyth and Sanct Anthoneis steple.” St Mary’s Church
was not converted into the parish church, until the destruction, at a later period, of that
of Restalrig, to which Leith was parochially joined ; yet its position, agreeing so well with
the accounts of the siege, leaves no doubt that it is intended by this designation. As all
the historians, however, uuite in speaking of St Anthony’s steeple as that whereon the
French garrison had erected their ordnance, there seems no reason to question that it was
The united forces continued to press the siege at Leith.
Maitland, p. 19. Diurnal of Oocurrenta, p. 57. a Ibid, p. 58. ‘ Bishop Lealie, p. 285.
YAMES V. TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARY. 67
the tower of the preceptoy, and not that of the present parish church, as the talented
editor of Keith’s History suggests.’ No vestige, indeed, of St Anthony’s steeple has
existed for centuries, and it is probable that it was totally destroyed at this period. The
tower of St Mary’s, which was takendown in 1836, was evidently an erection of a much
later date, and too small to have admitted of a battery being mounted upon it.
On the 22d of April, Monluc, bishop of Valence, arrived as a commissioner from the
Court of France, and attempted to mediate between the Regent aiid the Lords of the
Congregation. He entered into communication with the reformers and their allies, and
spent two days in the English camp ; he thereafter passed to the Queen lkgent in Edinburgh
Castle, but. all attempts at reconciliation proved ineffectual, as the asRailants would
accept of no other terms than the demolition of the fortifications of Leith, and the dismissal
of all the French troops from Scotland.
Meanwhile, the Queen Regent lay in the Castle of Edinburgh, sufferilig alike from
failing health and anxiety of mind. Her life was now drawing to a close, and she repeatedly
sought to bring about a reconciliation between the contending parties, that she might, if
possible, resign the sceptre to her daughter free from the terrible rivalry and contentions
which had embittered the whole period of her Regency ; but all attempts at compromise
proved in vain, and her French advisers prevented her closing with the sole proposal on
which the leaders of the Congregation at length agreed to acknowledge her authoritynamely,
that all foreign troops should immediately quit the realm.
When the Queen Regent found her end approaching, she requested an interview with
the Lords of the Congregation. The Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of Argyle, Marischal,
and Glencairn, with the Lord James, immediately repaired to the Castle, where they
were received by the dying Queen with such humility and unfeigned kindness as deeply
moved them. She extended her hand to each of them, beseeching their forgiveness with
tears, whereinsoever she had offended them. She expressed deep grief that matters should
ever have come to such extremities, ascribing it to the influence of foreign counsels, which
had compelled her to act contrary to her own inclinations.
At the request of the
barons, she received a visit from John Willock, with whom she conversed for a considerable
time. He besought her to seek mercy alone through the death of Christ, urging her
at the same time to acknowledge the mass as a relic of idolatry. She assured him that
she looked for salvation in no other way than through the death of her Saviour; and
without replying to his further exhortation, she bade him farewell.’
The Queen Regent died on the following day, the 10th of June 1560. The preachers
refused to permit her to be buried according to the rites of the Catholic Church. Her body
was accordingly placed in a lead coffin, and kept in the Castle till the 9th of October,
when it was transported to France, and buried in the Benedictine monastery at Rheims, of
which her own sister was then Abbess.
Both parties were now equally iuclined to a peace ; and accordingly, within a very short
time after the death of the Regent, Cecil, the able minister of Queen Elizabeth, repaired to
Edinburgh, accompanied by Sir Nicholas Wotton. Here they were met by the Bishops of
The scene was so affecting that all present were moved to tears.
Keith, 1844, Spottiswood Soc., voL i p. 271. Wodrow MieL voL i. p. 84. * Calderwood, voL i. p. 589. Keith, voL i. p. 280.
